Brian Walton's news and commentary on the St. Louis Cardinals (TM) and their minor league system

Four different Cards relievers with saves in last four wins

When Trever Miller relieved Jason Motte with two outs in the 11th inning Friday night at Atlanta and collected a save, albeit a shaky one, the 37-year-old became the fourth different pitcher to record a save in the St. Louis Cardinals’ last four victories.

Miller followed Fernando Salas, who closed out Thursday’s win in Houston and Eduardo Sanchez, who earned his first MLB save on Wednesday night. In the game immediately prior to Mitchell Boggs’ blown save against the Astros on Tuesday, Boggs closed out the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday night.

Sunday marked both Boggs’ third consecutive save and the first game of the unusual four-man, four-save streak.

As is usually the case, researcher Tom Orf was able to satisfy my curiosity about the uniqueness of the feat.

The Cardinals had a similar stretch in 2005, also in April on almost the same exact dates. That one was led off by incumbent closer Jason Isringhausen and followed by Randy Flores, Julian Tavarez and Al Reyes. Just as in 2011, one loss occurred in the interim.

Since at least 1972, the Cardinals have had no other periods of four saves by four different pitchers in five or fewer games.

St. Louis Cardinals, four different relievers with saves in four consecutive wins over four or five games

When expanding the scope to four or more consecutive Cardinals wins/saves by different pitchers over any number of games, four more examples back to 1960 were found. (Obviously, losses were interspersed.) They follow.

Win#

Game#

Date

Opp

W/L

Score

Save

2

2

4/10/1990

MON

W

4-2

Terry

3

4

4/13/1990

@PHI

W

11-0

Tewksbury

4

7

4/16/1990

@PIT

W

6-4

Horton

5

9

4/18/1990

@PIT

W

3-0

Dayley

3

3

4/13/1968

@CHC

W

8-5

Willis

4

5

4/15/1968

@ATL

W

4-3

Hughes

5

6

4/16/2008

@ATL

W

6-2

Hoerner

6

9

4/19/1968

CHC

W

9-2

Gilson

52

88

7/17/1967

NYM

W

6-4

Briles

53

90

7/19/2007

@CIN

W

3-2

Lamabe

54

91

7/20/1967

@CIN

W

7-3

Hoerner

55

94

7/23/1967

ATL

W

3-2

Willis

53

101

7/30/1964

@CHC

W

5-2

Craig

54

104

8/2/1964

CIN

W

5-4

Taylor

55

106

8/5/1964

CHC

W

4-2

Humphreys

56

107

8/6/1964

CHC

W

5-3

Schultz

There have not been saves by five different pitchers in five consecutive Cardinals wins any time since at least 1960. With Salas “repeating” on Saturday, saving the Cardinals win over Atlanta, it will not happen this time, either.